Work Resumes at Atlanta Court Amid Grief and Fears

By SHAILA DEWAN

Published: March 15, 2005

Still in shock over a rampage in which three people were shot dead on Friday at the Fulton County Courthouse, hundreds of jittery workers turned to grief counselors and clergy members as they went back to work on Monday.

Adding to the unease was a report in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that the initial assault on a sheriff's deputy was captured by a security camera but went unnoticed.

''There is a sense, 'It could have been me,''' said the Rev. Howard W. Creecy, the Fulton County chaplain. ''I work in this environment. I am exposed to these same possibilities.''

He said people also wanted to know why such a thing had happened. ''There is an old Negro spiritual, 'We shall understand it better by and by,''' Mr. Creecy said.

The man accused of the carnage, Brian Nichols, is to appear in court on Tuesday. The authorities say Mr. Nichols, on trial for rape, overpowered a guard on the way to court, took her gun and shot a judge, a court stenographer and a deputy before escaping. He is also accused of killing a federal customs agent before surrendering on Saturday.

''I'm not afraid,'' said Edward Bauer, a civil lawyer, as he waited for the elevator on Monday outside the eighth-floor courtroom where the shootings began. ''But I don't know that this has actually sunk in. You just really do not expect violence in this building. There's anguish here, anger, and violence between opposing sides, but to lose a judge in his own courtroom is just unfathomable.''

The day passed at the courthouse without incident, but deputies with guns on their hips still guarded uncuffed defendants -- one of the practices that critics called risky even before Mr. Nichols, who is 6-foot-1 and more than 200 pounds, overpowered the 51-year-old deputy, Cynthia Hall.

Only one jury trial is in session, and no new juries will be convened this week, partly out of concern that the public might fear entering the courthouse with memories of the shootings still so fresh.

The Sheriff's Office was plagued by well-publicized problems before Friday, including the escape of at least three inmates from the courthouse in recent months, and many more from the jail, which was so poorly supervised that a judge appointed a custodian to run it for the last few months of 2004.

But Lt. Clarence Huber, a spokesman for the Sheriff's Office, said, ''Up until Friday's event, we've had a very good track record with our security procedures.'' He added, ''We are still using those procedures.''

Lieutenant Huber said that a number of deputies -- he could not say how many -- had been redeployed to the courthouse on Monday from other units, and that prisoners were now being searched when they arrived at the courthouse in addition to when they left the jail.

Lieutenant Huber spent much of the day in damage control in response to the newspaper article that said Mr. Nichols's initial assault on the guard had been captured by a security camera that was supposed to have been monitored by two deputies.

Lieutenant Huber confirmed that the videotape had been handed over to the Atlanta Police Department, which is investigating the killings. But, he said, the courthouse central control room contains three monitors, each with 16 images, and the two deputies on duty must answer phones, issue keys and respond to radio calls in addition to watching the screens.

''Even if you have one person standing there doing nothing all day but watching these monitors, they're not going to be able to simultaneously monitor 48 images,'' Lieutenant Huber said. ''I wanted to kind of quash the idea that there was one big monitor.''

Mr. Nichols, who was taken into custody on Saturday morning after a woman he held hostage for hours managed to call 911, did not appear in court on Monday, although his rape case was declared a mistrial.

After Mr. Nichols was arrested, he was held on a federal weapons charge. On Monday, the United States attorney for the Northern District of Georgia, David E. Nahmias, dropped that charge, essentially ceding the prosecution to the Fulton County district attorney, Paul Howard.

Meanwhile, courthouse business seemed to proceed in slow motion, muted by grief and fear. ''It's scary, very scary,'' said Tamara Jackson, 31, a court clerk in the probate office. ''Everyone looks a little gloomy. The 'Good mornings' are dry. There are no smiles.''

Photo: Sgt. Vincent Owens was comforted at a memorial service on Monday by fellow sheriff's deputies Craig Johnson, left, and Michael Carmack. (Photo by John Amis/Associated Press)